A $28 million deficit leads City Council to limit ballot issues and leave TABOR alone — for now

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Less than a week ago, City Council thought its most pressing matter
was deciding how many options to offer voters on November's ballot.

Then came an unexpected group e-mail Sunday night. City Manager
Penny Culbreth-Graft, before presenting her 2010 budget preview to
Council on Monday, sent the nine elected leaders a summary: The
projected budget shortfall had effectively doubled, from $14 million to
a paralyzing $28 million.

After Culbreth-Graft publicly delivered the bad news Monday,
repeatedly saying, "There are no good alternatives," Councilors saw a
better-defined picture, and a different question: Given the severity of
their need for cash, only weeks to campaign and high-volume opposition,
should they be more selective in choosing their ballot battles?

They slept on the foreboding news, came back Tuesday and officially
committed to a single challenge: asking voters for a property tax
increase, roughly 35 cents a day in 2010 for a typical home in Colorado
Springs, as initially proposed by Councilwoman Jan Martin.

If voters approve it, the proposal would likely keep Council from
having to shut down the city's bus system, community and senior
centers, parks and pools, the Pioneers Museum and Sertich Ice Center,
not to mention eliminate up to 60 police and fire personnel —
perhaps more than 200 total positions across city government. (See
springsgov.com for the detailed
budget update and 2010 outlook.)

Martin said her measure "is not a fix-all, but it does take care of
the 2010 budget, and it gives the community an option." The third-year
councilor also switched her position from a day earlier on another
front, joining a 6-3 majority deciding against adding a
Council-sponsored issue, promoted by Independent publisher John
Weiss, that would have asked voters to repeal most of the city version
of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.

"This is the most difficult vote I've had to make," Martin said
before making her change known.

Councilman Jerry Heimlicher made his own switch, embracing Martin's
measure after learning how serious the budget troubles were.

"For those who say we're raising taxes, we're actually just giving
people an option," Heimlicher said. "This is a serious financial
crisis, and now the public will make the decision, not the City
Council. The people have to say yes or no, and then we'll go from
there.

"These aren't scare tactics, but they're scary."

The strategy was complicated by the specter of a counter-campaign
from Douglas Bruce, who attended Council's formal meeting Tuesday and
unleashed a series of verbal attacks. Bruce turned in petitions Tuesday
for his own ballot issue, aimed at ending payments to city enterprises such as the Stormwater fee. He demanded it be
allowed on the November ballot, trumpeting a promise from County Clerk
Bob Balink to help certify petition signatures if needed and asked.

Bruce might get his way. Mayor Lionel Rivera polled Council late
Tuesday and heard 6-3 support for the city to proceed with certifying
Bruce's signatures and allowing his issue onto the ballot, mainly to
avoid holding a special election at a time when city finances are so
limited.

That matter will come up formally as an agenda item at a special
Council meeting at 1 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28. The meeting had already had
been scheduled to deal with issuing certificates of participation for
the U.S. Olympic Committee retention deal.